Shareholders of GO plc, meeting at their annual general meeting today demanded responsibility for the losses the company has suffered as a result of its investment in its Greek subsidiary Forthnet.

Resolutions expressing no confidence in the management and demanding consultation with the shareholders before such future investments are made were defeated however.

The defeated resolutions provided that future transactions similar to those regarding the investment in Greece would be taken after due consultation with shareholders.

Also defeated was a resolution providing "that the company assesses the decision by the Board of Directors ratified on 16 March 2012 to skip the dividend in respect of the financial year ended 31 December 2011 and to enact a revised dividend policy based on the annual cash surpluses of the company and consider including the resolutions necessary to enable the Company to adopt a share buy-back programme within pre-determined terms at the earliest opportunity”.

The directors have this year not recommended a dividend after the company made a pre-tax loss of €45 million.

With the issue having been raised early in the meeting, GO chairman Deepak Padmanabhan told the shareholders that at the time when the investment in Greece was made, in 2007, no one could have predicted the situation which Greece found itself now. That investment, he said was made to enable GO to grow beyond Malta's small market.

Despite the problems, he said, one in five households in Greece used Forthnet's services and bundled services had increased by 35 per cent. The company grew by  6.6 per cent last year.

Forthnet, however, suffered a charge of €128.5 million representing an impairment charge attributable to goodwill arising from Forthnet’s investment in Nova, its TV arm.

That performance had led GO to recognise a charge of €62.3 million representing a write-down in the value of its shareholding. Still, matters for the future looked better.

CEO David Kay gave a presentation of GO's performance, noting in particular that it made an operating profit of €18.4 million, a decline of €4.4 million when
compared to 2010 due to one-time charges relating to pension obligations and voluntary retirement schemes. Excluding such extraordinary items GO achieved growth of 2.2% in its normalised operating profit from €23.1 million in 2010 to €23.7 million.

During the meeting, Joseph Bonett, who is standing for election to the board, quibbed that rather than discussing directors' emoluments, one should be discussing a cut in directors' pay in view of the absence of a dividend. 

The AGM elected the following board members Deepak Padmanabhan – Chairman, Nikhil Patil, Norbert Prihoda, Yasser Zeineldin, Paul Testaferrata Moroni Viani, Paul Fenech, Jim Kinsella and Joseph Agius.

See also GO sets up SPV to manage €50m property portfolio at:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120509/local/go-sets-up-spv-to-manage-its-properties.419077